#11____Memory of a Place: Try to imagine a place from your past. Do you have pictures of this place? Describe this place as you remember it. What might a photograph look like of this place if you were to go back and photograph it? What would it look like in the past? What would it look like to you today? Where are you standing in this place? What other items are in this place? What colors do you see? Are there other people or are you alone? Make a “written photograph” of this place using words/description.
My childhood back yard: Im standing in the middle enjoying everything. The smell of freshly cut grass, a swing set in the back near the woods. Bees and other insects flying about, especially near all the wild flowers. If I were to go back to my childhood back yard, it would be overgrown and neglected. The swing set is long gone, but the insects still remain. The greens are still as vibrant, and the wildflowers have grown in number. It looks much more natural now. No more standards, just free to be how it pleases.
#12____Memory of a Photograph: Which photograph from your past do you remember most? Describe this photograph. Describe how it makes you feel when you remember/think about this photograph. How have you changed? How has the place in this photograph changed? What would a reenactment of this photograph look like? Would you act or look differently if you reenacted this scene today?
Emma's christmas party in middle school. It was all just a group of close girl friends. We were joking around, as all teenagers do, and had stolen one of her bras. I was looking off to the side at Emma, grinning and giggling, as I held her small white bra to the camera as she play threatened to tackle all of us down. I was small and petite. If I were to reenact this photo now, the tables would have probably turned as we ganged up on another one of our close friends: Jamie. She was always quite well endowed and me and Emma were frequently reminded on how small our chests were. This time, this silly act would have been performed at Jamie's house, with Emma being the main suspect in the crime. Good friends doing stupid things.
#13____Human-Made Space: In the past, photographers who were interested in how humans impacted the natural landscape grouped together to form the New Topographics. “"New Topographics" signaled the emergence of a new photographic approach to landscape: romanticization gave way to cooler appraisal, focused on the everyday built environment and more attuned to conceptual concerns of the broader art field.”http://www.lacma.org/art/ExhibTopo.aspx
In addition, at the same time in history artists created (and still do create) “land art” in which they use materials found in the landscape to make sculptures that remain in the landscape. Many of these works now only exist as video recordings and photographic documents.
Pay attention to the number of ways in which you encounter humans’ interaction with nature and the physical land. Write these down. Using these as inspiration, describe an idea for a piece of “land art” that you might create that would be documented by a photograph. Describe an idea for a piece of “land art” that you might make in a man-made landscape that would be documented by a photograph.
Remember when you were a child, playing in the woods, making forts and playhouses? I would create more forts and playhouses within woods and capture these images to relive my childhood and encourage others to remember theirs. I would also create forts and playhouses, made out of sticks, in the middle of a busy, well traveled place, such as on campus. Imagine a wooden fort in the middle of the engineering building.
#14____Unknown vs. Familiar Space: When photography was invented, it became a way to document and reveal the specific aspects of both familiar and faraway places. Imagine a familiar place. Imagine a faraway place. How would you use photographs to convey the difference? Can you imagine any places that have been “touched” very little by humans? How might you photograph them?
Using photographs, I would capture the free and natural faraway place, barely touched by humans. This place has been free to grow without the interference of humans. I would also capture the disturbed familiar place, showing the ways that humans have affected the area. I could photograph the faraway place with a fast shutter speed, making it crisp and touchable, while I would photograph the familiar place with a short shutter speed, blurring it and making it seem faraway.
#15____In-Camera Collage: Collage brings together two or more items that were previously separate. The resulting piece usually visually references the fact that they were once separate entities. Imagine an important place in your past. Imagine an important place in your present. Imagine who you were in both of these past and present places. Describe how you might use a slow shutter speed and/or double exposure to capture two moments in one image that tell a new narrative about these important places and how they relate to who you are and were.
An important place in my past would have to be my childhood bedroom. That is where I grew up, dreaming of being older and playing make believe with these thoughts. I had no care in the world and did not have to fear growing up. I was allowed to be a child. An important place in my present is my current bedroom. It is a small dorm room that I share with another girl. My homework is sprawled all over my bed and my laptop is seated on top of it. The laptop is open to various homework pages and Facebook. My thoughts no longer are dreaming of adulthood, but of the deadlines I have for my life. Putting these two places together, I would use a slow shutter speed to capture my childhood. Light, bright and airy. I would use a fast shutter speed to capture my current place. Dark, busy and hectic. In order to connect these two images, I would have the stuffed cat I had as a child and still have today laying on my bed.
